Well, sort of. The official first day of summer isn’t until June 20, but in my eyes, the start of June always signifies the beginning of copious amounts of summer produce, bottomless tropical cocktails, and long sunny days.

Does it get any better?!

But you know what a new month means: new trends in the food blogosphere! Here’s what is happening in June:

Well, sort of. The official first day of summer isn’t until June 20, but in my eyes, the start of June always signifies the beginning of copious amounts of summer produce, bottomless tropical cocktails, and long sunny days.

Does it get any better?!

But you know what a new month means: new trends in the food blogosphere! Here’s what is happening in June:

Summer Holidays

I’m not sure about you, but I am very much looking forward to summer holidays. Even though summer holidays are bound to look a little different this year…life is good in the summer.

Readers will be looking for holiday recipe and entertaining ideas this month, so here’s a little reminder of some upcoming holidays:

First Day of Summer: Saturday, June 20

Father’s Day: Sunday, June 21

Canada Day: Wednesday, July 1

Independence Day: Saturday, July 4

According to the Pinterest Possibilities Planner from a few years ago, there are 10 million pinners that pin content about Independence Day and Father’s Day, and 37 million pinners that pin summer-related content, so there’s a ton of pinning potential with these holidays!

Believe it or not, fall and winter holidays will be upon us soon, so be sure to give these summer holidays their due!

Staycations

And I’m thinking that “staycations” will be a very popular search this year, as readers are needing to reconsider their summer vacation plans. People won’t be looking for travel tipslike they usually do this time of year. Instead, they’ll want to bring that vacation fun home.

How can you help? Think about ways that you can encourage your readers to take some time to relax this summer, since most won’t be able to get out of town. Bring the fresh, tropical, vacation foods to them with seasonal produce and summery recipes.

Grilling and BBQ

Do you have the secret to perfectly juicy grilled chicken? How about a vegetable marinade perfect for the grill? Or what if you post a roundup of your favorite skewer recipes? There are so many options for grilled goodness this time of year!

As a reference, BBQ is a very cyclical search term, so June is the perfect time of year to give your readers your very best BBQ-ing tips and recipes!

The Summer Slump

While we are seeing jumps in food blog traffic because more people are cooking at home, The Summer Slump may still be a relevant trend this month.

I love Ali’s suggestions for blogging through the Summer Slump, rather than getting bogged down in worries that your page views aren’t where you want them to be. My favorite tip in the article is all about taking risks and experimenting with your blog. Is there a series you’ve been thinking about adding to your post lineup? Do you have some off-niche recipes or posts you’ve been thinking about publishing? Try recording some recipe videos. Or maybe try a challenge with your readers to keep them engaged? Summer is the perfect time to try out your ideas! Take that risk and press Publish.

Or…take a break. Life has been interesting (and tough and stressful and weird) these past few months, and sometimes a break from blogging is exactly what you need. Make it as long or as short as you like, but taking a step back may just help you relax and come back to blogging in a refreshed state of mind.

Now let’s chat: What are you planning on posting this month? How are you going to balance these summery trends?

As a recipe creator, you can submit your recipes to these food sharing sites, and then these sites will display and feature those recipes. These food sharing sites are all a little different, but submitting your content to them can be part of an effective traffic-building strategy.

Do you submit your blog recipes to food sharing sites? These recipe aggregator sites help recipe creators drive traffic to their own blogs and get their content seen.

As a recipe creator, you can submit your recipes to these food sharing sites, and then these sites will display and feature those recipes. These food sharing sites are all a little different, but submitting your content to them can be part of an effective traffic-building strategy.

These are some of our favorite food sharing sites:

Foodgawker

When you think of food sharing sites, Foodgawker probably first comes to mind. It’s one of many “gawker” websites (Stylegawker, Weddinggawker, and Craftgawker are other post aggregate sites!), but Foodgawker is where you’ll want to submit your recipes.

We like Foodgawker because content creators submit links to their recipes, rather than the full recipes themselves. This means that if a Foodgawker user wants your recipe, they’ll need to go to your site to get it.

Pro Tip: When you submit your recipes to Foodgawker, make sure you include an enticing description to help encourage clicks through to your site! Your description will be shown directly under your photo on Foodgawker’s feed.

The Feed Feed

First of all, make sure you’re following @thefeedfeed on Instagram because they post the most beautiful food photos from bloggers from around the globe.

Pretty self-explanatory, but be sure you make use of this hashtag because it’s a great way to get your images and recipes featured on their page and website!

You can submit your recipes on their website

Much like Foodgawker, you can submit your recipes to The Feed Feed’s site. You can upload just a picture and title with a description or you can upload the entire recipe. We’d recommend the former, just so the recipe lives solely on your site.

You can connect your blog to The Feed Feed’s website to automatically pull your most recent images and blog post titles

This is a really cool feature on The Feed Feed. Once you set up that connection, the title and images you post will automatically get pulled to The Feed Feed’s site and it’ll create a link back to your site. Pretty nifty!

To set that up, you should register, claim your FeedFeed profile, and then you can provide your blog URL in your profile. Easy as that!

Tasty Kitchen

Fun fact: Tasty Kitchen is actually owned by Ree Drummond, aka. The Pioneer Woman! It’s essentially a social network for food bloggers, meaning you can make some connections with other food bloggers through this site.

One especially cool thing about Tasty Kitchen is that if they really like the recipe you submit, they’ll feature it for a day on their homepage alongside your name and photo. Then, if a reader clicks on your post, they’ll find your recipe and a link back to your blog.

Unlike Foodgawker, Tasty Kitchen requires you to add your entire recipe and instructions when submitting your recipe. That means that your full recipe will live both on your blog and on Tasty Kitchen.

When you’re first starting out with your blog and with food sharing sites, it can be helpful to submit your recipes through Tasty Kitchen; it’s another place to get your name and your content out and in front of readers. That said, it’s possible that the content you submit to Tasty Kitchen will outrank the recipes on your own site, which is something to consider as your traffic grows.

Healthy Aperture

If you create healthier recipes, you may be interested in submitting your recipes to Healthy Aperture! It works very similarly to Foodgawker, as you submit your photos and recipe titles, and readers will need to click through to your own site to actually get the recipe.

Healthy Aperture has a pretty effective filtering system, making it easier for readers to find recipes based on their dietary preferences. If you publish recipes for specific diets, Healthy Aperture is a great place to help get your posts in front the right readers.

Finding Vegan

Do you publish vegan content? If so, Finding Vegan is a food sharing site that’s not to be missed! It’s a food sharing site created by Kathy Patalsky from healthyhappylife.com, and as you can probably imagine, Finding Vegan is an awesome place for finding and sharing vegan recipes.

Finding Vegan works in the same way that Healthy Aperture and Foodgawker do, so readers will need to click through Finding Vegan to your site to find your recipe. You don’t need to exclusively be a vegan blogger to submit your recipes; if you have a one-off recipe on your blog that’s vegan or “accidentally vegan,” you can submit it on Finding Vegan!

Yummly

Yummly is a unique food sharing site-meets-personalized recipe aggregator. They have meal planning functionality, the ability to save recipes, and more, so it’s essentially a recipe collection app for readers.

You can add your recipes to Yummly by adding a Yum button to your site (more details here), so if your readers are already using Yummly, it could be a really great way to get your content on the platform.

An important note…

All food sharing sites have different sizing and editing recommendations that you should consider before you submit your recipes to each site.

]]>https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/our-favorite-food-sharing-sites/feed/27 Beginner Tips for Improving Your Food Photographyhttps://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/beginner-tips-improving-food-photography/
https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/beginner-tips-improving-food-photography/#commentsThu, 14 May 2020 15:26:00 +0000https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/?p=93921You know the old adage, “We eat with our eyes”? It’s true! I know that when I’m looking for a recipe to make, I’ll only consider it if the photos make me hungry.

Photography is such an important part of the food blogging game, and there are a few cheap and easy strategies and skills that you can implement as a beginner food photographer that can help you take your food photography skills from the photo on the left to the one on the right:

You know the old adage, “We eat with our eyes”? It’s true! I know that when I’m looking for a recipe to make, I’ll only consider it if the photos make me hungry.

Photography is such an important part of the food blogging game, and there are a few cheap and easy strategies and skills that you can implement as a beginner food photographer that can help you take your food photography skills from the photo on the left to the one on the right:

These are our 7 Beginner Tips for Improving Your Food Photography:

1. Use natural light

The easiest and cheapest tip of them all…using the sun!

We suggest using natural light versus the harsh overhead lights in your house or the flash on your camera. Why? Let’s compare:

The picture on the left was taken with an overhead light, while the one on the right was lit only with the light from the sun.

Notice how the photo on the left has an orangey hue? You can thank overhead lighting for that! In addition to an unnatural color, overhead lighting and camera flash can give your photos unwanted and harsh shadows. Not super yummy.

The colors in the photo on the right are much more natural, much more appetizing, and more true to the actual colors of the food. I’d dig into that any day.

An important thing to note about natural lighting is that you should opt for shooting in indirect sunlight, rather than straight-on sunlight. With indirect sunlight, light will drape over your food, rather than blow out your colors and give you those intense shadows. Indirect sunlight gives a much more natural look to your colors, which is much more appetizing to your readers.

That is, of course, a styling preference, so if you like those harsh sunlight shadows, go for it! Bon Appetit has been really successful with this with a few of their food photos. Just be sure to adjust your colors with an editing program to make sure they really pop!

2. Use the camera you have

When you’re first starting on your food photography journey, there’s no reason to drop a ton of moolah to make it happen.

Have a smart phone or a point-and-shoot camera? Great! Get started with those, and upgrade if and when the right time comes. You can practice honing in on your style and learning about lighting while taking great photos with the camera you have.

3. Know your angles

When you take a food photo, where do you stand in respect to where your food is? Knowing your angles can help you figure that out!

With food photography, there are three main angles:

Table Height

As the name suggests, you can achieve this angle by positioning your camera flat against your table. This angle works best for thick foods, big piles of foods, or stacked foods. Here are some examples:

This is a really great angle to show texture in your food, just be sure to be aware of whatever is in the background of your photo. You may need to use a second photography board or a bare wall to get the look you’re after.

Three-Fourths

The midpoint between a Table Height angle and an Overhead angle (more on the latter in a second). I really like a Three-Fourths angle because you can see a bit more of your food, especially when it’s in a bowl. Imagine how you’d stand if you were peaking into a bowl full of cookie dough–that’s the look that the Three-Fourths angle will give you.

It’s also really helpful for showing depth if the food you’re shooting is long and flat. A Table Height angle really wouldn’t work with a platter of food because you miss so much of the full picture; the Three-Fourths angle will help you fit the entirety of the platter in the frame, while still showing off some height.

Here are some examples:

Imagine your table or photography background is 0° and directly over your food is 90°. To achieve this Three-Fourth’s look, position yourself in the middle of the two, at 45°.

Overhead

The famous flat-lay! This angle, taken from directly above the food, is great for foods or spreads that have a ton of texture or different elements like this:

These kinds of photos may be difficult to achieve depending on how tall the surface you’re shooting on is, so if you’re having trouble, you can use a step-stool or take your photography background to the ground. Just be sure you’re not blocking your light source with this angle!

P.S. We also have a few lesson videos on the differences between lighting angles on Food Blogger Pro. If you’re a member, be sure to check them out!

4. The Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is a classic way to help you compose your photo in an aesthetically pleasing, balanced way.

Complementary colors are across from each other in the Color Wheel, meaning that if you have an orange food (think enchiladas with orange sauce), it may make sense aesthetically to include some kind of blue linen or bowl in the photo. Orange and blue are across from each other in the Color Wheel, and according to the Color Theory, that means that those colors will help each other “pop” in your photo. Pretty cool, huh?

6. Use props

Props can be used to create the mood of your photos. Take a photo like this. What does this photo make you feel?

Cozy? Ready to spend time with your family? Wanting Thanksgiving to happen immediately so you can dive face-first into this bowl of yum?

Exactly. And while the food is clearly comfort food ready to be served at your next Thanksgiving family dinner, the props like the worn wooden background and the antiqued spoon really help convey your message (“You should make this for Thanksgiving!”).

And that leads me to…

7. Find your style

Just because one food photographer is doing something one way, that doesn’t mean that you have to do it that way too. And that’s okay! Your photography style makes your blog and your photos unique; don’t be afraid to break the rules and really figure out your style.

A fun exercise is to peruse Pinterest or your favorite blogs and save the pictures that make you go, “Wow. That’s a great picture. And it makes me hungry.” It can help you hone in on the style that really speaks to you–do you like dark and moody photos or light and airy photos? Lots of props or more minimal?

Food photography can seem intimidating, but these principles should help give you a bit of a direction as you jump into this wonderful, delicious world.

If you’re a seasoned photographer, we’re curious: What are some other photography rules that you follow? Any tips for newbies? Leave ’em in the comments below!

P.S. We have a ton of photography and photo editing tutorials on Food Blogger Pro. You can get access to them (along with other courses on growing your blog, monetizing, and more) by signing up for a membership today!

You make this really awsome recipe – I’m talking really yummy, and you can’t wait to share it with your readers. It’s full of fresh ingredients, the pictures are great, and it got rave reviews from your family.

You open your post editor to get started on the blog post, and…your mind goes blank. Words have lost their meaning. Your fingers freeze. Your mind starts filling with random SEO advice and desires to do keyword research.

You make this really awesome recipe – I’m talking really yummy, and you can’t wait to share it with your readers. It’s full of fresh ingredients, the pictures are great, and it got rave reviews from your family.

You open your post editor to get started on the blog post, and…your mind goes blank. Words have lost their meaning. Your fingers freeze. Your mind starts filling with random SEO advice and desires to do keyword research.

“What in the world do I write?”

—

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In fact, I’ve sat down to write this article at least four times before finally finishing it.

It’s tough to write blog posts, right? You need to be helpful! And entertaining! And exciting! And shareable! And with perfect SEO practices! And concise! And thorough!

Or do you?

I’m here today to challenge you to find your voice, and I know that sounds kind of floofy and dramatic. But it can help you counter that pesky writer’s block we’ve all experienced too many times.

Finding your voice can give you direction when that big ol’ blank white screen is staring back at you. It can help you with word choice and tone, as well as the overall flow of your post.

So how do you find your voice? And then how can you be sure that your posts are written in your voice?

Well, one really great question that can help you answer those questions is, “What do I want my readers to feel when they read this post?”

Should they feel informed? Empowered? Inspired? Entertained? Related to? Do you want them to laugh? To get up and make your recipe right that second? To believe in themselves and their ability to make a recipe their family loves?

They’re all totally valid feelings that a reader can experience when reading a post.

Luckily, you don’t need to be everything to everyone; you just need to be something to your people.

So what is your “something”? What do you want your readers to experience when they read your content? To help you figure that out, it’s helpful to think about what you’re about.

Designer and author Paul Jarvis talks about finding his “rat people” – aka. the people who are into the same things that he’s into (like having pet rats). You want to write for those people, the people who align with your beliefs and ideals, because they’re the ones who will relate to and value your voice.

So ask yourself: What are my core values? More importantly, what are my brand’s core values?

If your core value for your content is informational depth, you probably don’t need to include a lot of personality or anecdotes in your writing. You should, however, have a sense of organization, sentence structure, and clarity.

But if your core values for your content are friendliness, humor, and relatability, you’ll need to share more stories and bring more personality and down-to-earthness into your writing.

Understanding your core values helps set the tone of your writing and gives you the direction you need when you’re face-to-face with a blank screen.

And I know what you’re thinking right now: “But what about SEO?”

A totally valid question. I feel that tug between writing in a way that I think Google will like and not wanting to sound like a robot all the time.

But I think it’s important to remember that Google loves it when you’re helpful to your readers. In fact, that’s what it wants.

We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward.

Google Webmaster Central Blog – August, 2019

If it’s helpful for your readers, it’s helpful to Google. And the right readers will find, appreciate, and respond to your voice.

So we’re curious: What are you about? What do you want your readers to feel when they read your content?

]]>https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/finding-your-voice/feed/4Trending Now in Food Blogging – Mayhttps://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/trending-now-in-food-blogging-may/
https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/trending-now-in-food-blogging-may/#commentsThu, 30 Apr 2020 13:00:00 +0000https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/trending-now-in-food-blogging-may/Can someone please tell me how in the world it’s May already?! I feel like I was just writing about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Resolution trends.

The coronavirus has influenced the food blogging industry in some interesting ways this year, and here's what's trending in food blogging in May 2020:

It’s a unique time for content creators, but hopefully these resources will equip you with the knowledge and confidence you need to make the most of it.

Spring Holidays

As we mentioned last month, spring holiday celebrations are going to look a little different this year. Even so, it’s worth keeping these holidays in mind:

Cinco de Mayo: Tuesday, May 5

Mother’s Day: Sunday, May 10

Memorial Day: Monday, May 25

First Day of Summer: Saturday, June 20

Father’s Day: Sunday, June 21

Canada Day: Wednesday, July 1

Independence Day: Saturday, July 4

Nobody really knows how to celebrate these holidays virtually, so don’t feel like you need to provide the answer for your readers. Instead, give them options, ideas, inspiration, and a place they can go when they’re feeling stuck.

Margaritas & Tacos

Arguably the best part about this time of year is the fact that margaritas and tacos are trending. Can you think of a better duo?

Now that it finally feels like spring, it’s the perfect time to fire up the grill, line your cups with salt, and have a fun little fiesta at home.

I also wanted to highlight these two trends because of those two very random spikes you see—October 2017 for margaritas and December 2016 for tacos. Kind of weird, right? There isn’t a popular Mexican food-based holiday close to these dates, so what’s going on?

It actually has to do with fads, when searches gain popularity quickly and then fade just as quick. Searches for these terms spiked because of something that happened in the news or in pop culture, and in these instances, Applebees launched $1 margaritas in October 2017 and Taco Bell launched $1 double stacked tacos.

If you ever see weird spikes like this on Google Trends and feel like investigating, I suggest setting a custom time range for that search term on Google Trends (I chose 10/1/2017 – 10/31/2017), and then scrolling down to the Related Queries box:

While these fads, by definition, don’t really matter in 2020, it’s something to keep in mind. Be sure to keep your eye on popular news stories to see if you can hit one of these micro trends!

Graduation

May marks the month of graduations, so there’s a good chance that your readers might be searching for some fun, delicious graduation goodies. In fact, look how searches for “graduation” spike this month every year:

Of course, readers are going to be looking for different kinds of graduation ideas this year, as they’ll need ideas to help them celebrate their graduates in a socially-distant way. Easy festive recipes, gift ideas, and unique ways to celebrate will all be at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Strawberries

Last but certainly not least: strawberries! These beautiful red gems start trending this month, and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it! Hey there, favorite summer fruit!

To be honest, I’m kind of surprised strawberries are trending so early in the year because I always associate strawberries with the start of summer. Regardless, there are so many ways to incorporate this fruit into your blog posts this month. Try combining strawberries with the other trends we chatted about this month – strawberries are perfect ingredients for Mother’s Day goodies. Summery strawberry-based cocktails, strawberry salads, strawberry-based desserts – there’s so much yum to be had this season!

Now let’s chat: How are you changing your content calendar based on the trends we’re seeing this month? Are you going all-in on Pinterest?

]]>https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/trending-now-in-food-blogging-may/feed/15How to get more traffic to your blog, lessons from The Matrixhttps://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/how-to-get-more-traffic-to-your-blog/
https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/how-to-get-more-traffic-to-your-blog/#commentsThu, 23 Apr 2020 08:00:00 +0000https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/how-to-get-more-traffic-to-your-blog-lessons-from-the-matrix/The Matrix holds a special place in my heart. It was the first rated R movie that I saw. I can remember it like it was yesterday…

The year was 1999. My brother was nice enough to let me go with him to his friend’s house, where a few “older kids” were hanging out for the afternoon. I was 13 at the time and my brother and his friends were 16. They were trying to decide what to do when one of the guys said, “Hey! I rented The Matrix last night, we should watch it!” He proceeded to pull the movie (a VHS rental from Movie Gallery, of course) out of his backpack.

My brother, being the good brother that he is, let the guys know that I’m not allowed to watch rated R movies. There was a collective groan from the guys and I immediately felt like a middle schooler kid in a group of high schoolers (which I was).

In an effort to gain some dignity I said; “Wait! Maybe Mom and Dad will let me watch it. I’ll call and ask them.”

The Matrix holds a special place in my heart. It was the first rated R movie that I saw. I can remember it like it was yesterday…

The year was 1999. My brother was nice enough to let me go with him to his friend’s house, where a few “older kids” were hanging out for the afternoon. I was 13 at the time and my brother and his friends were 16. They were trying to decide what to do when one of the guys said, “Hey! I rented The Matrix last night, we should watch it!” He proceeded to pull the movie (a VHS rental from Movie Gallery, of course) out of his backpack.

My brother, being the good brother that he is, let the guys know that I’m not allowed to watch rated R movies. There was a collective groan from the guys and I immediately felt like a middle schooler kid in a group of high schoolers (which I was).

In an effort to gain some dignity I said; “Wait! Maybe Mom and Dad will let me watch it. I’ll call and ask them.”

Phone: Ring ring ring…

Dad: “Ostrom’s” (that’s how my family would answer the phone).

Bjork (nervous voice): “Hey Dad, Erik and his friends are watching The Matrix, would that be okay if I watch it with them?”

Dad: What is it rated?

Bjork: “R”

Dad:Silence

Bjork:Silence

Dad: “Vick!” (that’s Dad calling out to my mom (Vicki) in the other room).

Dad:Mumbling (as they discussed the decision, hand over the phone’s microphone).

Dad: “Yeah, that’s okay if you watch it, but this is an exception to the rule.”

I don’t remember many details from when I was 13 years old, but I do remember quite a bit about that movie. I’m sure that I was extra attentive, as I realized that this might be the only rated R movie I see for another three years.

For those that haven’t seen it, the (very condensed) premise of the movie is that Neo (the main character) finds himself in an alternate world where the bad guys (Agents) can do everything better than him. He needs to figure out how the alternate world works so he can defeat the Agents.

You can watch the trailer to get a better idea of what the movie is about. You can also get a better idea of why I felt like the coolest 13 year old alive when I was watching it:

Fifteen years after watching the movie I’ve decided it’s time to validate my parent’s decision to let me watch it by using some concepts from the movie and applying them to a common questions that Lindsay and I get about blogging:

How do I get more traffic to my blog?

My goal for this post won’t come in the form of tips or tricks that will help increase your blog’s traffic. Those are important, but that’s not what this post is about. My goal is to give you a new way to view how the internet works and how it connects back to your blog.

Similarities between starting a blog and The Matrix

Here’s a scene from early on in The Matrix when Morpheus (the first dude) is trying to teach Neo (the second dude) how to jump across a building.

That scene is a pretty good analogy for how it feels when you’re first starting a blog. You start by watching someone else do it. You observe, take notes, maybe even consult with family and friends, and eventually come to the conclusion that it’s something you could do as well.

You take a few steps back, get a running start…and fall straight to the concrete.

Ouch.

What’s the deal? How come it looks so easy for other people?

What people tell you

After hitting the concrete you get back up, brush off your shirt, and get back to it. Time to do some research! After reading article after article (after article) you come up with a list of things that people say you should do to build traffic to your blog.

It probably looks something like this:

How to build traffic to your blog

Commit to the long-term

Create high-quality content

Share your content

Take good pictures

Be personable and relatable

Be consistent

Engage on social media

Create an email list

Practice good SEO

Add value

Create unique content

Write guest posts

Leave comments on other blogs

That’s a pretty good list, and all of these things are really good things to do when building a blog. The issue is that we often times do these things blindly, not knowing why we should be doing them or how they really impact our blog’s traffic.

Seeing the internet in a new way

There’s a scene at the end of The Matrix where Neo realizes that The Matrix is actually just a really advanced computer program. He’s able to see the code that creates The Matrix. Weird, I know, but for 13-year-old me it was a jaw-dropped-eyes-wide-open-this-is-sooooo-cool kind of moment.

Take a look. The important scene happens at 41 seconds.

Okay, you have to admit… That’s pretty awesome, right?

My hope with this post is to give you that same revelation that Neo had about The Matrix except for the internet.

Here’s the thing:

Much like The Matrix, we see the internet not for how it’s created but for what it shows us. We see videos, images, text, GIFs, recipes, ads, etc, etc, etc…

For instance, when looking at pinchofyum.com we see the “regular” version:

Not the “The Matrix” version:

And when looking at “The Matrix version” (also called the source code) we notice something really interesting.

Links. Lots and lots of links.

They’re everywhere!

As a matter of fact, everything on the internet is in some way created from a link.

The image in your post? It’s actually a link. That YouTube video you just watched? It’s a link. Scrolling through Pinterest? The only thing you’re looking at is links. Did you click a bookmark in your web browser today? That’s a link. How about a Google search result? Yep! It’s a link.

There are lots of technical details we could dive into that help explain this idea, but the important thing here is the frame of mind, which is that in order to grow traffic to your blog you need to first think about links, not traffic.

When we start to understand links we start to understand how to grow traffic to our blog. With this new way of thinking about the internet we’re able to see beyond basic “tips and tricks” and understand why we should be doing certain things and how they really impact our blog’s success.

Note: If you’ve ever read about SEO you know that building links is an important step in increasing your blog’s rank in Google. In this post I’m referring to “link building” on a broader scale, not just in terms of SEO.

Let’s take a look at some of those tips on how to build traffic to your blog and see how they are actually about links.

Commit to the long-term

Everyone knows that it takes a long time for a blog to start getting decent traffic.

Why is that?

It’s because it takes a long time for a blog to build up links. If you have 150 posts after one year then you have 150 different URLs that could be linking to. That’s pretty awesome!

But think about after 10 years of posting at the same frequency. That’s 1,500 posts! If you’re just starting your food blog and you have 10 posts (or 20, or 50, or 100) you probably don’t have enough content (and therefore don’t have enough links) to get decent traffic to your blog, which is why it’s important to commit to the long-term.

Create high-quality content

This is the mantra of many blogging experts. We hear it all the time: Content is King! Create Awesome Content! Write Epic Content!

It’s for a good reason though: It’s true!

But with our new understanding of the significance of links we can start to understand exactly why it’s so important to create high-quality content.

High-quality content multiplies all types of linking. People are more likely to save your blog’s URL in their bookmarks bar (a link!), share your post on social media (a link!), or sign up for your email list (which will send them links back to your blog!). When one of those things happens then your blog (and your traffic) grows a little bit. If you put out crummy content you won’t get any links, and as we’re learning the life blood of the internet (and your blog) is links. No links = no traffic. More links = more traffic.

Share your content

This one is a bit controversial, but I’m a big believer in letting people use the content you’ve created as long as it’s accompanied by a link. I wrote an FBP blog post about how this will help you grow your blog, but the bottom line is…you guessed it: links.

Some of the most successful bloggers I know actually encourage people to do this. Here’s an example:

If you want to understand the internet like Neo understood The Matrix then you need to see everything in terms of links, whether they’re links from Google, email, social media, other websites, or a bookmarks bar in someone’s web browser.

What about you?

Did the ideas in this post change how you think about building traffic to your blog? What are some other examples that you can think of where building traffic is actually building links to your blog? What’s the best way that you’ve found to build links to your blog (and therefore build your blog’s traffic)?

]]>https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/how-to-get-more-traffic-to-your-blog/feed/25The Ideal Search Result for Food Bloggers (and How to Get it for Your Blog)https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/the-ideal-search-result-for-food-bloggers-and-how-to-get-it-for-your-blog/
https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/the-ideal-search-result-for-food-bloggers-and-how-to-get-it-for-your-blog/#commentsThu, 16 Apr 2020 10:00:00 +0000https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/the-ideal-search-result-for-food-bloggers-and-how-to-get-it-for-your-blog/

Have you ever Googled one of your recipes and been disappointed with how the result is displayed in Google (if it even displays at all)? This happens for one of two reasons:

Google has decided to show your post that way.

You haven’t set things up correctly on your blog.

You can’t do much about #1. Even if your blog is perfectly formatted Google might still decide that they’re going to leave out certain information from a search result. Google does as Google pleases. There’s not much you can do about it except make sure that you're not falling victim to #2.

There is something that you can do about #2, as there are multiple components that factor into the ideal, rich search result for food bloggers. None of them are complicated, but they do require some time to set them up properly.

Have you ever Googled one of your recipes and been disappointed with how the result is displayed in Google (if it even displays at all)? This happens for one of two reasons:

Google has decided to show your post that way.

You haven’t set things up correctly on your blog.

You can’t do much about #1. Even if your blog is perfectly formatted Google might still decide that they’re going to leave out certain information from a search result. Google does as Google pleases. There’s not much you can do about it except make sure that you’re not falling victim to #2.

There is something that you can do about #2, as there are multiple components that factor into the ideal, rich search result for food bloggers. None of them are complicated, but they do require some time to set them up properly.

Keep in mind, this post is not necessarily about how to get your food blog to rank high in Google. It’s about how to set things up so your food blog has as many “bonus” search elements as possible.

I’m using the Vegan Crunchwrap Supreme recipe from Pinch of Yum as an example for this post. You can view the original post here and the search result here. Otherwise, here’s a screenshot of the search result:

Note #1: It’s important to know that Google doesn’t automatically reflect updates in the search results (remember, Google does as Google pleases). If you want to check to see if things are formatted correctly you should use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.

Note #2: We’ll be using the term “keyword” or “keyword phrase” in this post. Your keyword phrase is the phrase that you’re trying to rank for in Google. The keyword phrase for a recipe post is usually just the name of the recipe. In our example, the keyword phrase is “vegan crunchwrap supreme.” If we wanted to try to rank for a more competitive (and harder to rank for) keyword we could use “vegan crunchwrap” or just “crunchwrap.”

Note #3: This is considered a “rich result” or “rich snippet” because it displays all of these fun “extras” – ratings, calories, a description, an image, etc.

Let’s break down each element and talk about how you can replicate these results for your food blog.

1. Title and Blog Name

The biggest part of any search result is the article (or in our case, recipe) title and the blog name.

Google pulls the title of the post here, rather than the title of the recipe, so it’s important to title your posts with the name of your recipe whenever you can.

Not only that, title is also a ranking factor, so you’ll want to make sure your post titles are optimized and include your keyword.

We have this set up in the SEO plugin we use, Yoast SEO. If you download the plugin and go to SEO > Search Appearance > Content Types, you’ll see this:

For Posts (which is how we publish our recipes), the SEO title format is set to Title, Page, Separator, Site title. In this example, that translates to, Vegan Crunchwrap Supreme Recipe – Pinch of Yum, which is what we see in our search results!

Pretty nifty, huh?

2. Recipe Image

If you do a quick Google search, you’ll notice that some results include images and some don’t. Why is that?

Images in search results come directly from the post’s structured data. We upload the photo directly into our recipe plugin, Tasty Recipes, and that’s the image Google will show in search results – most of the time.

Why do I say, “most of the time?” Google does what Google wants. Even if you upload an image there, it’s up to Google to show it in search results.

5. Description

Notice how the description under the search result is an actual description of the recipe rather than the first few sentences in the post or an ingredient list?

That’s by design! We setup a recipe description for each post using our Yoast SEO plugin:

The Meta description should be descriptive of the recipe, it should include your keyword, and it should entice the reader to click on the result.

Check Your Work

That’s a [crunch]wrap! You can check to see if your updates were successful by pasting in a URL for one of your posts into Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. If there are no Errors and no Warnings, you should be good to go!

One thing to note is that Warnings won’t necessarily hurt you; a warning is just telling you that you’re not including a certain value that Google recommends. So if you’re not shooting recipe videos, you’ll have a warning for that.

Errors, on the other hand, should be fixed immediately. You’ll get an error if you’re missing a required piece of information in your post.

We like to include as much information as possible in our posts, so if we have the values for the recommended and required fields, we include them.

If you’re not seeing updates to your search results immediately, you can nudge Google to show your updated information by submitting your URL for reindexing in Google Search Console. If you want to learn more about this free tool, we have a whole course about it on Food Blogger Pro!

How did it go? I’d love to hear if you successfully made these changes or had any issues along the way.

]]>https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/the-ideal-search-result-for-food-bloggers-and-how-to-get-it-for-your-blog/feed/11Choosing a WordPress Recipe Pluginhttps://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/choosing-a-wordpress-recipe-plugin/
https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/choosing-a-wordpress-recipe-plugin/#commentsThu, 09 Apr 2020 14:36:00 +0000https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/?p=94164One of the most important plugins for a food blogger is a recipe plugin. Recipes are at the core of most food blogs, so as a food blogger, you’ll want to make sure you’re publishing your recipes in a way that’s helpful for your readers and for search engines to understand.

And a good recipe plugin will do both!

We’re going to cover a few different things in this article to help you choose the best recipe plugin for your blog:

One of the most important plugins for a food blogger is a recipe plugin. Recipes are at the core of most food blogs, so as a food blogger, you’ll want to make sure you’re publishing your recipes in a way that’s helpful for your readers and for search engines to understand.

And a good recipe plugin will do both!

We’re going to cover a few different things in this article to help you choose the best recipe plugin for your blog:

Ready to dive into the wonderful world of recipe plugins? Let’s do it!

What’s a recipe plugin?

Before we start talking about recipe plugins, it’s important to understand what plugins actually are.

At its core, a plugin gives additional capabilities to your WordPress site. Think of it like an app on your phone; on its own, your phone can’t teach you a language. But downloading the Duolingo app can.

There are thousands of plugins available for WordPress sites, and recipe plugins make up just a teeny tiny sector of all plugins available.

Recipe plugins can come in two different forms, free and premium. While free may sound better right off the bat (who doesn’t love free stuff?!), there are benefits to paying for a premium plugin, like dedicated support and a generally more active development schedule.

Why do I need a recipe plugin?

Those additional capabilities that recipe plugins give to your WordPress site are important not only for your readers, but for search engines as well.

Recipe plugin benefits for your readers:

When looking for a recipe to cook for dinner, is it easier to follow the recipe if it looks like the right or left photo?

I’d choose the right version every single time. And while you can code and design the left version to look like the right version all on your own, recipe plugins make it easy to publish a beautiful recipe like the version on the right with zero coding experience required.

Here’s an example of what the user-side of a recipe plugin can look like:

Recipe plugins have fields that you can fill in with your ingredients, instructions, cook time, recipe title, and more. It will then automagically display them on your site in a beautiful, aesthetically-pleasing way. Cool, right?

Not only that, some recipe plugins have different features that help enhance the reader’s experience:

Readers can easily print, pin, and save a recipe, scale ingredients up and down, save recipes to a collection, or change the ingredient measurements, all thanks to the features built into a recipe plugin!

Recipe plugin benefits for search engines

Search is an important way that people find your recipes. In fact, search engine traffic is Pinch of Yum’s (our sister food blog site) #1 source of traffic!

Recipe plugins can have an impact in your site’s ability to show up in search results and getting your recipes seen. A well-developed recipe plugin will take the instructions, ingredients, and other recipe elements on your posts and “mark them up” in a way that search engines understand and display for the end user.

Remember how a recipe plugin can take a list of ingredients or instructions and automagically display them on your site in a beautiful way? Recipe plugins can take those same ingredients and instructions and automagically mark them up in a way that search engines understand without any coding effort from you, the blogger. Score!

Not only that, search engines can then take that information that they get from a recipe plugin and display it in different ways for readers. For example, have you seen any of these in your Google Searching or Pinteresting endeavors?

Those little elements are called rich snippets (on Google) or rich pins (on Pinterest), and they can help increase your recipe’s click through rate (and thus, your search ranking) from search results.

How can I choose the best recipe plugin?

So you’re convinced you need a recipe plugin, eh? That’s awesome! There are a few things you can look for in a recipe plugin to make sure you’re getting the best of the best:

#1. It was recently updated

A good rule of thumb for all plugins is to look for plugins that are being actively maintained and updated. Technology changes so quickly and you don’t want to be stuck with a recipe plugin that doesn’t keep up with new Google search recommendations or industry trends.

#2. It has good reviews

Regardless of whether you use a free or premium recipe plugin, you should look at reviews to make sure other bloggers like using and see benefits from that particular plugin.

If it’s a free plugin and you download it from the WordPress plugin repository, you can usually find the reviews right there on the download page. If the plugin is premium, look for testimonials on the creator’s site or reviews online.

You want to make sure that others are enjoying and seeing benefits from using the plugin. If they are, there’s a good chance you will too!

#3. It has awesome support

All free plugins found in the WordPress plugin repository will have a support forum, so take a look and make sure that users’ questions are getting answered.

Premium plugins are a bit tricker, as they typically handle support via an app or email. That said, you can reach out to them with pre-sales questions, and if they’re helpful, great! If not, you may want to shop around a bit more to find a plugin that can give you the support you need.

#4. It provides JSON-LD structured data

JSON-LD is the recommended schema markup (aka. the language your recipe gets “translated” into) for search engines like Google and Pinterest, so you’ll want to make sure that your recipe plugin provides that markup.

If it’s not clear from the plugin’s download or sales page, be sure to ask the developer just to make sure (and judge their support while you’re at it ).

#5. It provides fields for all required and recommended structured data

The information that you send to search engines is only helpful if the search engines can make sense of it, and that’s where the required and recommended structured data fields come into play!

Once you get the recipe plugin, you can test it out by filling out all of the fields and running your recipe through Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Your goal is getting no errors and few to no warnings.

#6. Its users are ranking in search results

Remember those reviews you found for the plugins? See if those people are actually ranking in search results or getting featured in the Google carousel (see the picture below for an example). This is a great way to measure if the plugin can actually perform in the wild!

Also be sure to check that the search results are optimized with ratings, cook times, images, and descriptions, like this:

#7. It doesn’t have feature bloat (unless you need it)

Extra features are great, but only if they’re useful. Don’t get blinded by flashy features because they can weigh down your site and create a not-so-great user experience.

When it comes to extra features, make sure that you’ll use them and that your readers will actually find them useful. If your readers aren’t going to actually use them, then it’s just more noise on your recipe page that you don’t need.

The best WordPress recipe plugins

There are a surprising amount of recipe plugins on the market, and some are better than others. Here are our recommendations:

Tasty Recipes

Tasty Recipes is our #1 recipe plugin recommendation, not only because it checks all the boxes above, but also because we built it! That’s right, we have our own WordPress recipe plugin that we sell under our sister brand, WP Tasty.

We decided to create a recipe plugin when we realized that the recipe plugin we were using for Pinch of Yum (another one of our sister sites and a food blog) was out-of-date and no longer supported. There weren’t any stellar recipe plugin solutions on the market, so we built one ourselves!

It’s used by some of the biggest names in food blogging, and you can take comfort and confidence in the fact that this recipe plugin was made by food bloggers, so we’re always in-the-know with the latest blogging and search engine updates.

WP Recipe Maker

This free recipe plugin (with a premium option) is made by Bootstrapped Ventures, and it’s our favorite free recipe plugin on the market right now.

WP Recipe Maker is easy to work with, it’s frequently updated, and the folks behind Bootstrapped Ventures are extremely open to feedback from users and industry experts. Its premium version brings some extra functionality to your site, like giving readers the ability to rate your recipes without leaving a comment and adding a kitchen timer to your recipes.

Features you’re gonna love: An Elementor block that can be used with page builders, compatibility with RTL languages, automatic nutrition calculation, recipe conversions from all major recipe plugins, video integration, recipe ratings, jump to recipe button

Create by Mediavine

Mediavine is one of the major ad networks for publishers, and they recently released their own recipe plugin! If you’re a member of Mediavine’s ad network, this plugin may be a good choice for you.

There are some features that are exclusive for Mediavine bloggers, but it’s free for anyone to use. Like the others on our list, Create has built-in themes, is mobile-friendly, and has recipe importers if you’re converting from another plugin.

Question for YOU: What recipe plugin do you use? Do you like it? What’s your favorite feature?

P.S. If you’re a Food Blogger Pro member, be sure to check out our Understanding Recipe Plugins course! It’s a deep-dive into Recipe SEO, how to test your blog’s structured data, recipe search results, and more to help you get the most out of your recipes.

]]>https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/choosing-a-wordpress-recipe-plugin/feed/2How to Promote Your Food Blog on Instagramhttps://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/promote-food-blog-instagram/
https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/blog/promote-food-blog-instagram/#commentsThu, 02 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/?p=96402Oh, Instagram. Love it or hate it, it’s an important and effective way of building your brand.

But how can food bloggers successfully use Instagram as a part of their traffic and brand strategy? Let’s discuss:

Oh, Instagram. Love it or hate it, it’s an important and effective way of building your brand.

But how can food bloggers successfully use Instagram as a part of their traffic and brand strategy? Let’s discuss:

Why Instagram is Important for Food Bloggers

Instagram is a unique social media platform because it’s not all-that great for driving traffic back to your blog. You can add links in your profile or to your Instagram Stories, but it’s tough to actually get people from Instagram to your blog.

And I know what you’re thinking, “Hold up. Why would I spend time and promote my content on Instagram if it won’t result in pageviews on my blog?”

And that’s a really good question. Whenever we talk about social media, we’re almost always talking in terms of traffic to your site.

But Instagram is a little different. It’s a great place to build engagement, and in turn, strengthen your brand’s recognition and loyalty.

Instagram’s goal is to keep people on Instagram (that’s why you still can’t leave clickable links in your Instagram captions ), so we encourage you to post engaging content for your audience on Instagram, rather than trying to get them to go somewhere else all the time.

Here’s a really great example of building engagement on Instagram from Pinch of Yum:

A post shared by Pinch of Yum (@pinchofyum) on Feb 1, 2020 at 9:50am PST

Instead of leaving a link to the recipe on Pinch of Yum, the recipe is included within the caption, so their followers don’t need to click anywhere else to get the recipe.

When you do ask them to go somewhere else – to a post, to a sales page, to an opt-in page – you want to be intentional with that ask and strategically direct them to the place you want them to go. But more on that in a bit.

Using Instagram to Promote Your Content

The Instagram algorithm changes constantly, so instead of focusing on beating the algorithm, we encourage you to utilize some of these strategies to help get your content in front of more followers:

Consistent Posting

Much like posting on your blog, consistent posting will help you on Instagram; if your followers expect you to be there, be there.

You can post as often or as little as you want, just make sure that the captions are helpful and descriptive and your photos are on-brand.

Hashtags

Hashtags are an important and effective way to get your content seen by non-followers. Instagram users can follow hashtags or look through hashtag feeds (like this!), so we encourage you use hashtags in your Instagram captions.

You can keep track of common hashtags that you use in a tool like Planoly or in a notes app so that you always have that list with you. Then, when you’re ready to post, you can check out your list and pull the hashtags that are relevant to that content.

And to find those hashtags, check out what your fellow bloggers are using, ask a community of bloggers, or create your own branded hashtag (like #yourblogname) so that you can encourage your followers to use it.

This is a pretty important concept in the wonderful world of Instagram, so be sure to check out this post for more information about using hashtags.

Quality Content

Spend all of five seconds on Instagram, and you’ll see that the content that performs best looks a little different than the content that performs best on other social media platforms. Instagram is all about that high-quality content, so we encourage you to make sure your Instagram posts are eye-catching, engaging, and beautiful.

When planning your Insta content, you can consider the season, time of the week, or any upcoming holidays. And to make your post even more engaging, try adding tips or a full recipe in the caption to encourage comments or post saves.

Instagram Stories

If you want to take your Instagram strategy one step further, try tying your posts and Instagram Stories together. For example, you could share a photo of your new recipe on your feed, and in the caption say something like, “Be sure to hop over to my Stories to see me making this recipe! You won’t believe how easy it is.”

It’s a way to cross-promote your content on the same platform.

How to Generate Traffic From Instagram

So we’ve said that Instagram isn’t the best social media platform for getting traffic to your site, but there are some strategies that you can use to get your followers to the content on your blog.

Optimize Profile Links

Sharing links on Instagram isn’t always the easiest because there’s only one place in your Instagram profile where you can actually have a link:

Luckily, there are some low-cost tools that you can use to get your followers to your content:

Link in Profile: We like this tool because you can add links to your Instagram feed content

Tap Bio: From the makers of Link in Profile; similar idea with some different functionalities

Linktree: A simple linking tool that lets you link to your most important content

When you’re using one of these tools, make sure to keep it updated and link to some of your most popular posts so new followers can get to know you and your brand.

Swipe Up in Stories

If you have a business account and have 10,000 followers or more, then you have the “swipe up” feature in your Instagram Stories. If you’re talking about a post, a product, or a link in your Instagram Stories, this feature will allow you to add a link that your followers can easily access by “swiping up” on your Story. It’s pretty slick!

Food bloggers can use the “swipe up” feature in a ton of different ways. You could preview a recipe in your Stories and add a link to the recipe on your blog. You could talk about a new ebook and add a link to the purchase page. You could talk about your email list and add a link to a signup page. There are so many effective ways to use this feature!

To add a link to your Stories, click the link button and paste your link. Simple as that!

Bonus: You can save those Stories to your highlights so that new followers can also access that linked-to content!

—

Instagram is an incredibly beneficial social media platform for food bloggers, and while it’s not necessarily a mega traffic-driver, it’s helpful for increasing brand awareness, building your audience, and fostering engagement.

And if you’re interested in really hunkering down on solidifying your Instagram strategy, Food Blogger Pro members get access to our Instagram for Food Bloggers course where Lindsay and Bjork chat through Pinch of Yum’s Instagram Playbook and the decisions they make before posting any content on Instagram.

So now we’re curious: How do you use Instagram for your brand? Do you find that you generate a good bit of traffic from it, or do you use it in different ways?

Spring Holidays

Even though the coronavirus is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, time goes on and there are some holidays on the horizon. Here are a few you might want to keep in mind:

Easter: Sunday, April 12

Earth Day: Wednesday, April 22

Cinco de Mayo: Tuesday, May 5

Mother’s Day: Sunday, May 10

Memorial Day: Monday, May 25

Father’s Day: Sunday, June 21

Celebrations for these holidays may look different this year, so think about ways that you and your readers can celebrate while self-quarantining. What are your favorite tools to use to connect with your friends and families virtually? Have any tips for a virtual cook-along? How are you and your families celebrating these holidays?

The majority of us are heading into uncharted territories, having to enjoy these holidays with six feet between one another, so this timely advice is bound to help your readers.

Cake

Cake and our spring holidays go hand-in-hand, so you might want to try and incorporate those spring holiday themes into your baking endeavors. Carrot cake, coconut cake, lemon cake…they’re all super popular this time of year.

But you can also try stepping out of the [cake] box (heh) using quarantine-friendly ingredients. Do you have a recipe for an egg-free cake? How about ways to frost cake without using butter? Find ways that your readers can curb their cake cravings without needing some of these high-ticket grocery store items.

Stay-At-Home Kids

One of the many results of the COVID–19 pandemic is that many kids are out of school and parents are looking for ways to keep them occupied at home.

Asparagus

There is a ton you can do with asparagus – fresh or frozen. Grilled asparagus, pureéd asparagus, roasted asparagus…the list goes on and on. Encourage your readers to get their veggie on with other in-season produce like new potatoes, parsley, and artichokes. Yum yum.

Allergies

With warmer weather comes sniffling, sneezing, and itchy eyes. Searches for allergies are starting to spike this month, and it makes sense considering we’re in the thick of seasonal allergy time. While the allergy-prone might not be having too much fun this time of year, you can make their spring a little brighter.

Do you and your family have a natural remedy for seasonal allergies? A post about it might be popular this time of year! You could also focus on your favorite ways to combat allergies: favorite allergy medication, ways to avoid scratchy eyes, etc. You can help keep your readers feeling their best this month.

Let’s chat: How are you approaching blog content in the wake of COVID–19?